I, Nebuchadnezzar

GREETING ONE ANOTHER:

  • Take some time as a group to gather and socialize.

PRAYING TOGETHER:

Consider having 2-3 people open in prayer and focus prayer on VCC and/or community needs such as:

  • VCC Regathering from COVID

  • Spiritual and emotional well-being of VCC congregation while we’re in this long period of isolation from “community”

  • Inklings connections and outreach into the community

STARTER QUESTION

In sharing about the vision for VCC in 2021, Heath described the pursuit of holiness as being “called out FROM the world FOR the flourishing of the world.” How have you seen God’s calling for you to pursue personal holiness impact the community you’re in?

REVIEW QUESTION

Recalling the story of Daniel 3, how do trials or the “furnace of adversity” prepare us to be God’s image-bearers to the world around us?

IN THE BOOK

Below there are three different types of questions, so we encourage you to seek a balance if possible. In addition, there is a Leader Study Notes section for further study!

  1. The Understanding questions are designed to refresh your group's memory about the text. These can be answered fairly briefly without a need for longer discussion.

  2. Application questions are structured to draw out the ways the text, as preached, calls us to live. You should make a strong effort in your group to point people to Scripture as they’re discussing these.

  3. We’ve built out Personal Sharing questions that connect with the sermon, but make a more conscious effort to allow the members of your group to know each other better. These help to build a sense of trust by giving people a chance to share their lived experiences.

We pray that as you consider which of these questions work best for your group that God blesses your time together so that the Word of Christ “dwells in you more richly” and you become “knit together in love” as a community.

Nebuchadnezzar Praises God

READ: Daniel 4:1-3

UNDERSTANDING:

v. 2 - What phrase in this verse indicates Nebuchadnezzar’s view of his relationship to God?

v. 3 - What are some of the “signs” and “wonders” that helped shift Nebuchadnezzar’s attitude toward God?

APPLICATION:

“Superman don’t need no seatbelt.” - Muhammad Ali

Heath shared that “pride is a complete disconnect from reality, which is why it’s dangerous.” How can we ground ourselves in the reality of our lives before both God and others?

PERSONAL SHARING:

Has there ever been a time when you were seemingly expressing gratitude, but in your heart, you realized you were boasting?

Second Dream & Interpretation

READ: Daniel 4:4-27

UNDERSTANDING:

v. 17 - What was God intending to accomplish with this dream? What is its theme? [Leader Notes]

v. 10-12, v. 20-22 - What is the significance of the growing tree?

v. 25 - What needed to occur before Nebuchadnezzar would be changed back from his beast-like state?

APPLICATION:

Daniel explained that God had provided Nebuchadnezzar warning signs that if he continued on the path he chose, God was going to humble him. What are some of the ways God warns us of things in our lives that can ultimately lead to destruction?

PERSONAL SHARING:

“The more we seek to be like God out of pride, the more beast-like we become.”

When confronted with your own words or actions, how have you been surprised by expressions of pride in your life?

Humiliation & Restoration

READ: Daniel 4:28-37

UNDERSTANDING:

v. 30, 34-35 - How does the contrast in these verses demonstrate a change in Nebuchadnezzar’s heart attitude?

v. 37 - What virtue does the narrative point towards?

APPLICATION:

Heath said pride was as an "absence of worship or acknowledgment to God for what we’ve been given.” How do we speak and act in ways that keep us from robbing God of the acknowledgment He rightly deserves?

v. 37 - Why is it important for God to humble those who walk in pride? [Leader Notes]

PERSONAL SHARING:

Lethal competition was described by Heath as “looking for the -er,” whether that’s being richer, prettier, stronger, etc. How has God revealed that dynamic to you in your own life?

“God will humble the proud, and the humble He will lift up.” How has God working humility in your life had a surprisingly positive impact on you and the community around you?

LEADER STUDY NOTES:

What was God intending to accomplish with this dream? What is its theme? (v. 17)

“Chapter 4 is a story about two sovereignties” ... Seow calls attention to Nebuchadnezzar’s confessional praise of God both at the beginning (4:2-3) and end of this chapter (4:34-37). He concludes, “Indeed, by this framing, the key theological issue in this chapter is identified as the sovereignty of God over against human kingship, and for this reason the terms for sovereignty and kingship (vv. 3, 17, 18, 22, 25, 26, 31, 32, 34, 36)." ... We can, therefore, formulate the theme as follows, "The Most High God, being sovereign over earthly kingdoms, gives them to whom he will.” ... the “holy watcher” states the goal as, “in order that all who live may know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdom of mortals” (v. 17) ... But we may be able to formulate the goal more existentially by taking into account the circumstances of the original audience addressed by this book. Israel is suffering in exile in Babylon. It looks like the Babylonian gods have conquered Israel’s God. By means of this letter from the mightiest king on earth, however, the author informs the exiles of their God bringing down the mighty Babylonian king until even he confesses that their God is the Most High and gives the kingdom to whom he will. The author’s goal, therefore, is more than simply to teach; he seeks to assure the suffering, bewildered Israelites that, despite appearances, their God is sovereign over earthly kingdoms and gives them to whom he will.”

Excerpt From: Greidanus, Sidney. “Preaching Christ from Daniel.” Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. iBooks.

Philippians 2:3-5

Christ’s incarnation (God becoming man) is connected with our call to humility and service to others, which John Piper points out in the video below. He calls conceit “a love of glory that’s empty,” which echoes how Heath called pride “glory plagiarism.”

Humility has two main layers for the Christian. It first speaks to the way in which we carry ourselves in relation to God, and our relation to others. It begins in the mind, and that comes from God — both from the example of His life we can observe and that when we come to faith we have union with Him.

We may have legitimate reasons to “count” ourselves with a certain kind of esteem in who we are and what we’ve done, but Jesus clearly made the choice not to do so, according to what these verses tell us. The point is adopting a posture of service to others, which is exactly what Christ did. Our abilities and accomplishments have nothing to do with service.

Lowering ourselves has the counterintuitive effect of bestowing glory, not on us but on God.

Given how Christ is used as an example in these verses, why do you think that our motives are just as significant as our actions?

What sustains you through the “season” of servanthood that the Christian life here on earth is? Does being aware of the glory that awaits us, change your view on the here and now?

C.S. Lewis describes the humility embodied in Christ’s incarnation in his book Miracles using the following metaphor —

“Or one may think of a diver, first reducing himself to nakedness, then glancing in mid-air, then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water into black and cold water, down through increasing pressure into the death-like region of ooze and slime and old decay; then up again, back to colour and light, his lungs almost bursting, till suddenly he breaks surface again, holding in his hand the dripping, precious thing that he went down to recover. He and it are both coloured now that they have come up into the light: down below, where it lay colourless in the dark, he lost his colour, too.

In this descent and re-ascent everyone will recognise a familiar pattern: a thing written all over the world. It is the pattern of all vegetable life. It must belittle itself into something hard, small and deathlike, it must fall into the ground: thence the new life re-ascends.”

Nebuchadnezzar’s transformation into a beast-like creature is a shadow of the incarnation. They are both pictures of the mighty and powerful being brought low. The difference is that the purpose of Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation was to teach him the low place he truly occupied in relation to Yahweh, whereas Christ’s being made low reflected his willing submission to his Father, and in so doing displaying an even greater glory.

Why is it important that God humble those who walk in pride? (v. 37)

James 4:6,10 “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble … Humble yourselves therefore before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” Humility is an open door to God’s grace and Alec Motyer says,

“We must look to God for fresh and greater aid. This is the promised ‘greater grace’ of verse 6. What comfort there is in this verse! It tells us that God is tirelessly on our side. He never falters in respect of our needs, he always has more grace at hand for us. He is never less than sufficient, he always has more and yet more to give. Whatever we may forfeit when we put self first, we cannot forfeit our salvation, for there is always more grace. No matter what we do to him, he is never beaten. We may play false to the grace of election, contradict the grace of reconciliation, overlook the grace of indwelling—but be gives more grace. Even if we were to turn to him and say, ‘What I have received so far is much less than enough’, he would reply, ‘Well, you may have more’. His resources are never at an end, his patience is never exhausted, his initiative never stops, his generosity knows no limit: he gives more grace.”

ONE ANOTHERING:

Whether you are meeting together or not, check in with one another to make sure that everyone is cared for and has what they need. Does someone in your group need help with grocery shopping, childcare, or caring for themselves? Keep a list of the ways you can provide care as a comGroup.

Remember that the Benevolence Ministry is a resource for our comGroups.

  • How can we love or serve one another this week?